It's HOT! But I Can't Wait for August

And here's why.

HOMEMADE Butterfingers.

Yep. That's right. I said Homemade.

I found the recipe here.

Note that the original recipe calls for the ingredients in ounces. After researching those amounts, I have converted the recipe to read in the terms of cups for 2 of the ingredients.

Although Steph posted it last November I just came across it last week.

I can't remember exactly how that happened but I'm glad it did.

And I still had an unopened bag of candy corn from last Fall.

Candy corn? Yes, that's right. It's one of the THREE ingredients that this recipe calls for.

Candy corn, peanut butter and chocolate candy melts. Put them altogether and you get homemade butterfingers.

Here's how you do it.

Pour 2 and 1/2 cups candy corn (I used Brach's) in a microwave safe bowl that has been coated with non-stick cooking spray. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Stir. (I also sprayed the spatula I was using to stir the melted candy.) Continue microwaving at 15 second intervals and stirring after each 15 seconds.

Once the candy corn is totally melted, stir in 1 and 3/4 cups creamy peanut butter. (I personally used Jif because it's my favorite.)

Pour the mixture into an aluminum foil-lined 8x8" pan that has also been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. (I used a 9x9" pan because that's all I have and it worked out fine.)

The candy will harden - not totally hard, just very firm - as it cools. Anxious to see how the candy would turn out, I put the pan in the refrigerator to cool. But because I was doing other things, time got away from me and the candy was in there for a couple of hours or so.

Once the candy is cool, take it out of the pan and cut into individual pieces. Melt 16 ounces of chocolate candy melts per package directions and dip each piece, coating completely. As you are dipping the pieces, let the excess chocolate drip off each one before placing it onto waxed paper to harden.

I'm telling you - these candies taste exactly like the store-bought kind! While they don't have the "dry, flaky" texture of store-bought, once you start chewing a piece, it definitely has the crunch.

Besides the taste, it's that crunch that just blows me away. It's exactly like eating one of the store-bought candy bars!

So why can't I wait for August to get here? 

I checked several stores and couldn't find candy corn in any of them right now - at least reasonably priced candy corn. I did find some in a mall candy store but I just couldn't justify spending $10 a pound for it. Then I asked around and found out that candy corn usually starts making its appearance on store shelves sometime in August.

You can be sure I'll be stocking up. I think boxes of homemade butterfingers will make great Christmas gifts.

Pictures in the Clouds

click on each photo to enlarge it

I can't remember a time that I didn't like to look at the clouds and find images within the fluffy billows.

I was doing just that last weekend, passing time, waiting for some races to get underway.

Do you see any images in the clouds above?

Look close. I'd be interested to know what you see in those clouds.

Now I'll tell you what I saw.

Mark Twain with a puppy on his shoulder.

Here's a close-up of the puppy image I see.

Still don't see them?

I've added the words eye, nose and moustache here for Mr. Twain. Do you see him now?

And here I've marked the puppy with the words eye, nose, mouth and paw.

Whether you see the images I see in the clouds or something different, I think it's a fun way to pass the time.

Artwork

Last Saturday AD and I made a trip to Wichita, Kansas.

I reminded him that I wanted to pull over when we got to the metal sculptures that are located just a bit east of Augusta, Kansas on Sculpture Hill.

As we've driven by over the years I always wanted to get some photos but could never seem to remember until we were right there and in a hurry to get where we were going. This time stopping was in our plans.

If you check out the website you'll find that the artist, Frank Jensen, has a Master's Degree in English and taught for many years. Plus you can read about each one of his creations. I encourage you to take a look.

These deer have just cleared the fence. The artist titled it "Mule Deer".

(Please click on each photo to enlarge.)

The name of this one is "Red Bone, the Running Bison."

And this one is titled, "Morning Sun."

"Riding to the Meadow"



"Whistling Boy Bringing Home the Cow"



"Sheep Killer"

All of the ones before this one are spectacular works of art but this one and the next two are by far my favorites.

Because, you see, they represent one of the books I was required to read in high school. And it was one of my favorites.

Can you guess what piece of literature the windmill is from?  

Maybe this will help.

If you guessed "Don Quixote" you were spot on.

And here's Don's sidekick, Sancho Panza.

There are more sculptures that we could see from a distance but I was unable to capture them on film. I would love to see all of them up close but unfortunately tours are no longer given.

So I'll just admire them from afar.

I hope you enjoyed them as much as I do. 

One More for a Blogger Friend

My blogger friend, Twisted Fencepost, commented on my last post saying, "I'm drawn to barbed wire fences, too. Well, just about any kind of fence gets my attention. Specially, the fenceposts."

So TF, this one's for you!

I Took A Walk

around our place the other day. Mikey was going to go with me but his "buddy" from across the road showed up and off they went for their own adventures.

I have lots of photos of barbed wire fence. I just seem to be drawn to it.

We hardly have any trees but I sure enjoy the ones we do have.

Just after I took this photo a large fish jumped out of the water and made a big splash. Naturally. I have terrible timing.

I'm so glad I decided to take these photos. The following day the hay was hauled away for storage.

It's been pretty dry around here. We have a chance of some rain today. It would be a good thing.

Life goes on.

A More Pleasant Post

Look what I found hiding underneath the leaves of our hydrangea leaves this morning.

The 1st blooms of the season.

They sure brightened my day!

Enjoy the weekend - whatever you have planned!

To All My Blogger FRIENDS

And I did mean to cap the word FRIENDS. You know who you are. The ones that I've come to think of as my friends even though we haven't met in person. The ones that have visited me many, many times and the ones I enjoy visiting so very much.

I just want you to beware of new comments you might receive on your blog posts. Recently I've had some Spam-type comments slip through like wolves in sheep's clothing. Evidently the Spammers are finding ways around Spam control. AAARRRRGGGG!!!!!

In the past I haven't "checked out" those who've commented on my blog posts before publishing the comment. Maybe that's naive of me but I haven't - in the past.

But now, before I publish a comment - even those that appear quite innocent - from a new-to-me blogger, I'll be checking out their blogs first. If I find something I deem unsavoury about a particular blog/blogger I won't be publishing the comment.

I'm very sorry to have to resort to doing this because I truly believe the vast majority of bloggers are wonderful folks.

I sincerely hope no one takes offense to what I'm choosing to do. And I really don't think true bloggers will.

Catching Up

It's been awhile since I've blogged. So much has been happening around our place!

The horrible storms that brought tornadoes into Missouri and Oklahoma for one. AD and I, along with our 4 dogs took shelter in our safe room for a little while one of those nights. That was an adventure in itself since Dani doesn't particularly care for Mikey. You know she thinks she's the boss and he's so much bigger than she is, I think it kind of unnerves her a bit.

The storms didn't do any harm in our immediate area though, thank goodness.

We had scheduled an appointment to have the carpets cleaned in our living room, dining room and our bedroom the Friday before the storms hit. Long story short, the technicians didn't make it until the following Tuesday. Because we had moved all the furniture, AD and I, along with the 3 inside dogs, stayed in our 5th wheel thru the following Thursday. It took awhile for the carpets to completely dry even with "speedy dry" fans blowing.

G3 pretending to race G1's mini-Sprint

 Son brought his kiddos up from the city the following weekend.

G1's girlfriend was celebrating her birthday that weekend and I'd asked several weeks earlier if I could make her cake this year. I wanted to make her one of those topsy-turvy cakes. It was a fun cake to do.

I also made cookies (see some of them in the picture below), chocolate covered pretzels to look like lady bugs, and lady bug cake balls.

If you enlarge the photo above you'll see lady bug place mats that I made using black foam and red place mats that I bought at the dollar store. The special birthday hat was made using a glittered bowler, also from the dollar store, and the remnants of the black foam.

The flower balls were made by stringing ribbon through 2 holes of a wiffle ball and tying a knot, then hot-gluing flowers and leaves into the remaining holes. They were then tied to the chandelier.

When G4 celebrated his birthday a few weeks ago we gave him a Hex Bug starter kit and some bugs. Son told me the kids said I was the best Granny ever. Seems they all love the Hex bugs and have been adding to the collection.

They brought all their bugs and some of the other pieces to show us how they worked. It's pretty fascinating to watch all the little roach-type bugs move around the pods or whatever they're called.

When G3 and G4 were little I did a "My First Crush" (Orange Crush to be exact) photo shoot with them. I wanted to do a similar one with all the kids and this time use the title, "Orange You Cute."

This is one of the photos I particularly liked.

And this is another one of my favorites.

Girlie has some darling flamingo clothes. She wanted her photo taken with the turtle and snail in our front yard. It almost looks like the turtle is saying, "Listen, do you want to know a secret?" Ok. . . ok. . . I was a Beatles' fan back in the day and that's the first thing I thought of when I was going through the photos I'd taken. But it's a great title for a scrapbook page, don't you think?

We also made a trip to the Kiddie Park. The new photos in the header were some that were taken that evening.

So, that's what I've been up to recently along with the regular day-to-day stuff like laundry and cooking and mowing, etc. I know everyone is busy. It's that time of year. I'll be stopping by your place when I can and blogging here and there.

Have a great summer!